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View: East Ramapo's children cannot wait

That something is wrong in East Ramapo cannot be doubted. The district spent over $3 million last year on legal fees alone and budgeted the same amount to be spent this year. Board members should put aside hurt feelings and allow the state-appointed fiscal monitor to provide a data-driven, objective fiscal picture.

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View: East Ramapo's children cannot wait

Bruce M. Levine
12:31 a.m. EDT June 22, 2014

That something is wrong in East Ramapo cannot be doubted. The district spent over $3 million last year on legal fees alone and budgeted the same amount to be spent this year. Board members should put aside hurt feelings and allow the state-appointed fiscal monitor to provide a data-driven, objective fiscal picture.

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The Rev. Weldon McWilliams leads a rally last year calling for the East Ramapo school district to fire its controversial attorneys(Photo: Mareesa Nicosia/The Journal News)Buy Photo

East Ramapo School Board President Yehuda Weissmandl's comments that the appointment of a state fiscal monitor was capitulation to "bigots" is dead wrong and very unhelpful to a district that needs unity instead of divisiveness. I know Mr. Weissmandl and respect him but the current board must put the education of the public school children of East Ramapo first. Certainly, the interests of all the children of the district should come ahead of any hurt feelings experienced by board members.

That something is wrong in East Ramapo cannot be doubted. The district spent over $3 million last year on legal fees alone and budgeted the same amount to be spent this year.

Instead of promptly negotiating settlement agreements with the New York State Board of Regents and with parents and advocacy groups, the district continues to waste money that could be spent on re-hiring teachers and other staff. At the same time the district managed to quickly settle a case it had won over back rents due to it from a parochial school.

Surplus to deficit

A review of East Ramapo's independent audits shows that the district went from a $12.5 million surplus in 2011 to a deficit of $8.9 million as of June 30, 2013. It is currently borrowing $17 million to pay for current operations, a practice that did not exist before 2009. Another questionably balanced budget was put in place for the coming school year. Of note is that even as total bus transportation costs continue to rise, the amount budgeted for 2014-15 is millions less than the actual amount spent in 2012-13.

Using online data provided by The Journal News during the recent school board elections, I analyzed the per public school student spending in East Ramapo in order to compare such spending with the rest of the county. I used conservative estimates for transportation costs attributable to private school children and the excess legal fees (leaving other major areas of cost differences untouched) and found that East Ramapo spends $21,541 per public school student.

The rest of Rockland County spends an average of $25,878 per public school student or just over 20 percent more than is spent in East Ramapo. This is due to severe cuts in teachers, aides and other staff. And this is in a needy district with the lowest graduation rate in Rockland County.

Big picture needed

East Ramapo rejected $3.5 million in extra state aid obtained by our state legislators earmarked to restore some of the worst cuts but requiring fiscal accountability to insure that the money was spent as intended. Incredibly district leaders rejected this funding because they were insulted instead of putting the needs of the children first. District leaders need to be reminded that this is not a war where showing any weakness can be fatal. The children of the district can't wait for peace to be declared.

I hope the fiscal monitor approved by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the State Regents installed at the behest of all of our state legislators will create an objective, data-driven picture of what has been happening in East Ramapo over the last decade.

While it is clear that the state foundation aid funding formula needs to be changed to account for the true public costs of educating all of East Ramapo's children, issues of governance must be addressed.

I know that there are many in both the public and the private school communities who recognize this and realize that this is not some fantasy cooked up by "bigots." They want board members and key staff, including district counsel, to be committed to finding ways to rebuild a school district that was second to none in New York State in terms of the quality of its public schools and its efforts to remove barriers so that all children were prepared for bright futures.

Merely placing blame and managing the further decline of our public schools is unacceptable in the 21st century. We can start by toning down the rhetoric and working together to find solutions. Social justice demands no less.

The writer, a Montebello resident, is a former chairman of the Rockland County Legislature.